Microheater-integrated silicon coupled photonic crystal microcavities for low-power thermo-optic switching over a wide spectrum

We design, fabricate and experimentally demonstrate a compact thermo-optic gate switch comprising a 3.78μm-long coupled L0-type photonic crystal microcavities on a silicon-on-insulator substrate. A nanohole is inserted in the center of each individual L0 photonic crystal microcavity. Coupling between identical microcavities gives rise to bonding and antibonding states of the coupled photonic molecules. The coupled photonic crystal microcavities are numerically simulated and experimentally verified with a 6nm-wide flat-bottom resonance in its transmission spectrum, which enables wider operational spectrum range than microring resonators. An integrated micro-heater is in direct contact with the silicon core to efficiently drive the device. The thermo-optic switch is measured with an optical extinction ratio of 20dB, an on-off switching power of 18.2mW, a therm-optic tuning efficiency of 0.63nm/mW, a rise time of 14.8μsec and a fall time of 18.5μsec. The measured on-chip loss on the transmission band is as low as 1dB.